LivingSocial adds instant deals with $1 lunch specials

Summary:The daily deal site war is ramping up, and instant deals are becoming the new craze. LivingSocial has responded by pleasing both customers' stomachs and wallets at the same time with $1 lunch deals.

The daily deal site war is ramping up, and instant deals are becoming the new craze. LivingSocial has responded by pleasing both customers' stomachs and wallets at the same time with $1 lunch deals.

LivingSocial initially launched Dollar Lunch Days in Washington, D.C. in April, but it is now rolling out the instant deal offer to other cities nationwide starting with New York City on Wednesday. The Washington-based company is going to have to move fast with this new feature as instant deal programs (rather than the "traditional" kind where buyers have to wait 24 hours until they are valid) are rolling out from competitors such as GroupOn and Google Offers, among others.

The catch is that users will have to use the mobile apps for Android and the iPhone to redeem the deal. Even when selecting the voucher under the purchased deals part of the account screen, the graphic below pops up instead of a traditional copy that can be printed out.

As of this moment, there are still deals available for several restaurants throughout midtown Manhattan. Deals are usable between 11AM and 2PM, and the fine print says that if the credit hasn't been marked as used by the restaurant as of 2PM, the $1 will be refunded back to the credit card.

That's a wise decision on LivingSocial's part to keep customers content at the very least. Inevitably, there are going to be lines at these selected eateries, which might cause some buyers on a time crunch to pass on the deal they already paid for. Although $1 is a small amount to lose, it's a nice customer service gesture to give it back.

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive based in San Francisco, covering business and enterprise technology for ZDNet, CNET and SmartPlanet.
She has previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish Americ...
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